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PSA: credit scores vary between agencies

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racolvin

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So I went to get my annual credit report from the 3 reporting agencies, since that's free by law. I figured heck, it's been years since I looked at my score with those agencies but that isn't free. So I paid the extra $5-6 for each agency this time around to get my score along with my report.

Interestingly enough, the point scale varies between them ..

Equifax scale is: 350-850
Experian scale is: 501-990
TransUnion scale is: 501-990

Now precisely why things are this way is debatable. IMHO they should all be the same and there really shouldn't be a need for three different companies to do this sort of thing. My credit history is what it is and there's no legitimate reason for it to vary between these companies, nor is there a GOOD reason for the scales to vary.

Now having checked my reports with each I'm happy to say that the information between them is pretty consistent, even though some of them have more info than others. At least the baseline information is consistent. I'm not complaining about my personal scores or anything but I can't get past this whole thing of 3 agencies with different stuff.

So for my PSA: Check your credit report (for free) annually. Way too much in our modern lives is affected by that report and the score, so you should know what's in it.

http://www.annualcreditreport.com/
 
your 'real' history is constant, but the interpretation can be different. some may care more about how long your accounts have been open than others do, some may care more about your payment history. Just different interpretations of the same data. Nothing sinister going on, just different ratings. if they are using different formulas and score ranges wouldnt you EXPECT different results?

the reason i put real in quotation marks is bc IIRC, its possible for the history to be different in the different agencies but i dont have anything to substantiate that right now
 
They vary because they want to steal a piece of the FICO market. VantageScore is the reporting agencies attempting to work together to supplant FICO.

Never pay for anything that isn't a FICO.

Originally posted by: HardcoreRobot
the reason i put real in quotation marks is bc IIRC, its possible for the history to be different in the different agencies but i dont have anything to substantiate that right now
Click to expand...

Yes there is a lot of room for variance. Creditors aren't obligated to report to any or all of the agencies, so some things may appear on one agency report and not others.

Viper GTS
 
Originally posted by: HardcoreRobot
the reason i put real in quotation marks is bc IIRC, its possible for the history to be different in the different agencies but i dont have anything to substantiate that right now
Click to expand...

One of my reports had an (erroneous) item that was not on my other two reports.
 
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